Bed & Breakfast? Blither & Blather? How about some tasty chatter?

Anime Expo Day 3

This was probably the second busiest day of the convention. Despite only attending two events, I still felt overwhelmed due to the active nature of them both.

iDOLM@STER Dance Workshop
Despite my rush, I made it to the iDOLM@STER dance workshop in time. There was a bit of confusion at the start about whether or not they were switching over to Touhou, but happily, iDOLM@STER prevailed! I wish some people had actually dressed up as some of the girls, but if they do it again next year, maybe I’ll opt for Azusa who is the closest one in appearance.

The organization for this workshop was pretty bad, but I can’t really blame this since there was so much confusion about which dance they were going to do. I spoke with the guy who led the class (he coincidentally had a seat next to me at the LiSA concert, when he felt the need to explain himself), and I guess there were originally supposed to be three of them teaching us. With all the back and forth decisions, he ended up alone. I was hoping for more of a routine like the dance classes I attended on my Mexico cruise, where the leader takes the time to go slowly and repeat sections often–all with a beat in the background to let us know which moves are on or off the beat. Instead, we were shown short segments which we only got to mimic once or twice before he hurriedly moved on to the next section. I would blame the rush on the time limit, but after we had performed the entire dance (very, very awkwardly), AX staff informed us that we still had 30 minutes left! I wish we could have taken that extra time to at least learn the foot movements, so that it actually felt like a complete dance instead of arm flailing.

I didn’t have much hope for getting any photographs of this session since I planned on being up there myself, but there were a surprising number of people who were there just to watch. I asked a really nice girl in the front row to take some random shots, and she ended up taking 30! When the leader announced we were going to do the whole thing from the top, she even took it upon herself to walk up to the side and video record it all. I love meeting awesome people like this. I would share that video, but being as I’m at the center of it, I’d rather not subject my readers to my less than polished performance :p

LiSA Concert

Once again, the line for this venue started early and stretched far across the roof. I was there a lot earlier this time and stood in the stretch right after the premier badge line. For the concert itself, I only had bronze seating since I didn’t really know who she was beforehand. But with her amazing performance, I instantly became a fan. Even though both this and the Kajiura concerts were equally wonderful, they exuded completely different atmospheres. I knew who Kajiura was before going to her show, and greatly respect her ability as a composer and performing musician. She had produced some of my favorite soundtracks.

LiSA, on the other hand, was only known to me through her work on Angel Beats! and Fate/Zero. She even gave us an early listen to the soon-to-air Sword Art Online opening. Between all of these songs she performed her own works, none of which I recognized. Regardless, I definitely put in more energy as an audience member–I waved my now purchased glowstick to every song and had my fair share of cheering and yelling. I’m surprised I didn’t lose my voice afterward! At the very end, she asked us all to crowd forward for a photo opportunity (Yuki Kajiura did this too, actually). The photo above is from her own image site. The ones below are my own, featuring the rooftop view of downtown LA and inside Hall G.

Cosplay
I was thrilled to see both a pretty good Mawaru Penguindrum cosplay as well as a group for Steins;Gate. I also think the first Miku image (with Blue Rose) is the best Miku I saw in attendance. She has all the right proportions and a face that perfectly suits the character. I also stumbled across Yaya Han walking around the Exhibit Hall and she was really sweet to pose when I recognized her in her beautifully detailed Chun Li outfit.

Exhibit Hall & Haul
Day 3 in the Exhibit Hall was pretty uneventful, since I wanted to spend as little time there as possible after the first two crushing days. I was in and out, zeroing in on an item I had been watching for the past two days. I kept looking at the Makise Kurisu figure and arguing with myself about whether or not to buy it, and had made a decision to get it only if it was still there on Day 3. She stood there in all her glory waiting for me to pick her up, and I have now brought my total figure collection up to two.

I also snagged an awesome fleece bunny hat, with extra long ears that can double as a scarf. There were tons of bunny hats and other animal hats of all types available from different booths, but I think I found the best one. Its quality is pretty high, and I absolutely love the gray color paired with plaid. The maker of it was excited to talk to me and model it so I can better decide.

On my way out, I stopped by the NIS booth and gambled on a trading figurine. I had hoped to get either Desco or Vulcanus (?) for my boyfriend, but alas! I ended up with the little featured Emizel. The prinny mascot also posed with me and let me know I could hug him🙂

Like this:

Related

Post navigation

11 thoughts on “Anime Expo Day 3”

The iDOLM@STER dance workshop? That sounds interesting and of course wow! Those are some great cosplay photos I really liked the penguindrum ones and that random ED cosplayer! Damn that is some amazing stuff right there thanks for sharing ;D

mmm, I don’t think Panty is masked in that image. I think it’s just her hair and bangs that are casting a shadow across the top half of her face. I was also super tempted to buy the available Prinny plushie, but satisfied myself by just hugging him🙂

Ha, that Makise Kurisu pvc was actually the second figure I ever bought. Considering the Haibane Renmei and Spice & Wolf figurines that have been purchased since then, this may be the beginning of a slippery slope! Still, an expo is probably the best place to buy them. At least you avoid P&P, import tax, & bootlegs (ebay is full of counterfeit versions of that Kurisu model!).

Anyway, looks a lot of fun! Maybe one day I can justify going myself! Better start saving…

I don’t think I’ll have much of the slipper slope issue since ordering figurines online has some pretty soul crushing shipping rates for where I live. I’d prefer to just buy them at cons like this, which in my case, is pretty much never unless I fly out of Alaska >< And I would love Haibane Renmei and Spice & Wolf figures; I bet yours are gorgeous!

Saving a year early is smart for conventions like this. I pretty much threw my entire tax return at the convention.

Well just so you know I’m now expecting you to go again next year and cosplay as Azusa.

It’s a shame they didn’t have that dance workshop go as originally planned. Maybe then we’d have gotten that video lol. Seriously though I’m glad you was still able to have fun with it and find such a great camera girl.

That concert sounded like a blast. She must be quite the performer to win you over so thoroughly.

Heeeeyyyy….I asked if you were eying anything and you said no. Sure I asked last day but still… As for the purchases that first pic of the hat(?) really jumps out at me.

Haha, I don’t think I’ll cosplay for several years yet. It takes a lot of time and preparation, and I don’t really find the ordeal of lugging clothes and props to crammed conventions like this one too appealing :p

I’m going to try and upload the YT video tonight, probably with comments turned off. Too many people skip reading the descriptions of the videos–I’ll still leave an explanation that the class was really short so that people will understand why we all look so clumsy.

And I was being truthful when I said I wasn’t eying anything, at least not at the start. I stumbled across that figure without really looking for it, and then had it on my mind for a couple of days.

You seem torn on cosplaying. Sometimes it sounds like ya really wanna try it and then others it seems like you’re distancing yourself from the idea. Is it that you’d like to try it, but it also seems scary? I can understand that.

Wait…You might upload it? There’s some irony. I was teasing thinking you are to shy to do it. Kinda like the cosplay tbh. Thing is I actually love dance and would like to see how the workshop turned out, but my reception here is beyond bad.

Also I was teasing about the purchase. My joking nature kinda fails in text form I’m afraid and I cause misunderstandings. Sorry if that happened here.